Kanawha Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Kanawha Capital Management LLC cut its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,045 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 25 shares during the period. Kanawha Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $2,990,544,000. Amundi lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 23.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 7,733,061 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,111,050,000 after buying an additional 1,470,070 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,977,361,000 after buying an additional 1,255,546 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at about $571,086,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.97, for a total transaction of $333,391.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,947 shares in the company, valued at $5,697,760.59. This represents a 5.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.37, for a total transaction of $382,176.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 28,275 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,820,861.75. This represents a 1.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 213,146 shares of company stock worth $164,208,279 in the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ META opened at $750.82 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $741.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $693.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.60%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on META. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho set a $925.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.